How many Belgian governments are there, does anyone know?
I second this so hard.
Great example of bruxellisation / verbrusseling too!
What idiot thinks this?
The reason Belgium still somewhat functions is because not everything needs to be agreed upon at federal level.
N-VA
Nice thought, but we all know that a single government would be just as inept as the dozen or so that we have now.
Ah, not shown in the picture is the camp where the German speakers are ‘re-educated’.
Vlaanderen, verlaat deze puinhoop en kom bij ons
This picture is just as fitting for Britain after the Brexit.
r/belgiumconspiracy
Ireland if they hadn’t discovered alcohol.
1: one government
2: teach every kid to be perfectly bilingual
3: wait twenty years
4: ???
5: profit
Playing the annoying *a**hole*: it’s not a matter of numbers but of competence
the problem has zero to do with having many governments (no country has only one governing body).
The problem is a lack of hiërarchie what makes us special.
We are so rich and spend so much on nonsense
Comforting and simplistic idea, but alas, no, a return to unitary government wouldn’t somehow magically transform Belgium in a utopic society.
There are real reasons for why subsidiarity is a Good Idea in the context of Belgium. Territorial, historical, cultural, sociolinguistic, sociodemographic differences are *real* and legitimize us inching from unitary government to federalism. People who outright dismiss these live in a fairy tale land that is not actual Belgium.
Moreover, there is no reason that complicated nations, in the sense that they are federations with multiple levels of government, can be very, *very* successful. In fact, let’s think of some counterexamples.
Australia? Awesome quality of life. Federation.
Germany? Closer to home. Economic powerhouse of the EU. A federation.
USA? Probably the most well known federation, and economically the most successful nation since the industrial age.
Switzerland? Beacon of prosperity and peace and very much a complicated federation.
All of these nations share the same fundamental characteristics of governance with Belgium: a “complicated” system of governments with matters divided between the federal government and the individual regional governments. They have multiple election cycles. The number of political mandates is roughly proportional to the number of governments, so “a lot of” politicians yeah.
So why hasn’t Belgian federalism succeeded as well as it could have? Well, it might have something to do with the fact that unlike all (?) other federations on the face of this planet, we retrofitted it onto a constitution that was written for a unitary government. We got to independence through revolution, and from thereon moved to a form of federalism through political strife and incrementalism.
Instead of starting from a clean slate, we retrofitted weird stuff like non-territorial federalism (gemeenschappen, communautés) whereas all other federations on this planet are territorial (gewesten, régions). This means that, unlike other federations, in Belgium we divide matters not only based on geography only, but also on language. This added complexity, in my view, doesn’t merit existence.
In fact, I personally think we should move to purely territorial federalism with 4 regions who are each others equals in all matters, but that we should get there through a Constitutional Assemly where citizens and politicians rethink the basics, instead of tacking on some more amendments in yet another poorly conceived set of constitutional amendments in return for cash or whatever.
Belgium when more people in Wallonië and Brussels get a job.
No no we need 3 million ministers of volksgezondheid, the fatter the better
Dadde..
It felt like this for me during that time when we didn’t have a government.
25 comments
This but unironically :/
How many Belgian governments are there, does anyone know?
I second this so hard.
Great example of bruxellisation / verbrusseling too!
What idiot thinks this?
The reason Belgium still somewhat functions is because not everything needs to be agreed upon at federal level.
N-VA
Nice thought, but we all know that a single government would be just as inept as the dozen or so that we have now.
Ah, not shown in the picture is the camp where the German speakers are ‘re-educated’.
Vlaanderen, verlaat deze puinhoop en kom bij ons
This picture is just as fitting for Britain after the Brexit.
r/belgiumconspiracy
Ireland if they hadn’t discovered alcohol.
1: one government
2: teach every kid to be perfectly bilingual
3: wait twenty years
4: ???
5: profit
Playing the annoying *a**hole*: it’s not a matter of numbers but of competence
the problem has zero to do with having many governments (no country has only one governing body).
The problem is a lack of hiërarchie what makes us special.
We are so rich and spend so much on nonsense
Comforting and simplistic idea, but alas, no, a return to unitary government wouldn’t somehow magically transform Belgium in a utopic society.
There are real reasons for why subsidiarity is a Good Idea in the context of Belgium. Territorial, historical, cultural, sociolinguistic, sociodemographic differences are *real* and legitimize us inching from unitary government to federalism. People who outright dismiss these live in a fairy tale land that is not actual Belgium.
Moreover, there is no reason that complicated nations, in the sense that they are federations with multiple levels of government, can be very, *very* successful. In fact, let’s think of some counterexamples.
Australia? Awesome quality of life. Federation.
Germany? Closer to home. Economic powerhouse of the EU. A federation.
USA? Probably the most well known federation, and economically the most successful nation since the industrial age.
Switzerland? Beacon of prosperity and peace and very much a complicated federation.
All of these nations share the same fundamental characteristics of governance with Belgium: a “complicated” system of governments with matters divided between the federal government and the individual regional governments. They have multiple election cycles. The number of political mandates is roughly proportional to the number of governments, so “a lot of” politicians yeah.
So why hasn’t Belgian federalism succeeded as well as it could have? Well, it might have something to do with the fact that unlike all (?) other federations on the face of this planet, we retrofitted it onto a constitution that was written for a unitary government. We got to independence through revolution, and from thereon moved to a form of federalism through political strife and incrementalism.
Instead of starting from a clean slate, we retrofitted weird stuff like non-territorial federalism (gemeenschappen, communautés) whereas all other federations on this planet are territorial (gewesten, régions). This means that, unlike other federations, in Belgium we divide matters not only based on geography only, but also on language. This added complexity, in my view, doesn’t merit existence.
In fact, I personally think we should move to purely territorial federalism with 4 regions who are each others equals in all matters, but that we should get there through a Constitutional Assemly where citizens and politicians rethink the basics, instead of tacking on some more amendments in yet another poorly conceived set of constitutional amendments in return for cash or whatever.
Belgium when more people in Wallonië and Brussels get a job.
No no we need 3 million ministers of volksgezondheid, the fatter the better
Dadde..
It felt like this for me during that time when we didn’t have a government.
#doubt
(but it would be a lot better tho)
Yo wait we have more then one? Damn
Maybe the roads would be better as well
Flanders if it were independent from wallonia.
This is.. perfect